1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for regulating the operation of an irrigation system. More particularly, the invention pertains to a regulator system for regulating the operation of an irrigation system which is responsive to user programmed information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Automatic irrigation systems such as those employed for landscape and agricultural watering are well known in the art. Typical irrigation systems use a means of controlling the watering cycles via an automatic controller. The need to control watering cycles due to environmental conditions is important for saving costs and preventing unsafe conditions. Watering cycle controls must be responsive to precipitation, high wind and freezing temperature situations. The usual means of suspending an automatic watering cycle in an irrigation system is by an operator manually canceling a cycle at an irrigation controller. At most times this proves to be unreliable and inconvenient due to inconsistencies by the operator. Often an operator ignores the need to suspend the watering cycle, and/or neglects to resume the watering cycle when required. This leads to over-watering and under-watering of the landscaping.
Rain sensors for irrigation systems are an effective and economical method of conserving water, energy, and costs. One such rain sensor for an irrigation system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,499, which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent shows an easy to install rain sensor which wirelessly transmits rain sensor data to an irrigation system. The data is wirelessly received at a control mechanism and affects the operation of the irrigation controller as desired.
One drawback of currently available rain sensors is the inability to effectively change the control parameters for choosing the environmental conditions for allowing or suspending watering by the irrigation system. Existing systems have some major disadvantages in that typical rain sensors are factory pre-set for the environmental conditions for allowing or suspending watering by the irrigation system or are only adjustable at the remote sensing location. Known weather sensors interface with an irrigation controller to prevent or resume watering dependent upon local weather conditions such as rain, temperature, and wind conditions. For example, a rain and freeze sensor would communicate to the irrigation controller and prevent watering of lawns and landscape when it is raining, has rained recently or the temperature is too low.
However, once installed and adjusted, rain sensors do not allow for parameter adjustments to be made by an individual at the irrigation controller. Also, existing systems are not able to interpret the input received from the sensor. Typically the sensor either makes or breaks an electrical circuit and thereby prevents the irrigation controller from watering by either breaking a connection to a common solenoid, valve or wire or by connecting to special sensor inputs on the controller. The extent by which existing systems can be controlled is limited to sensitivity adjustments of the sensor unit such as for the amount of accumulated rainfall required to trip the sensor. Also, typically, weather sensors are mounted where they are exposed to the elements and once mounted are not easily adjusted or manipulated. Hence there is a need for the ability to control a weather sensor from an interface of these sensors or sensor systems with the irrigation controllers to which they are connected.
It would be advantageous for the operator to be able to program varying environmental conditions for changes to meet seasonal or geographic requirements. The present invention provides a device, method, and system for controlling a weather sensor for irrigation systems whereby the input obtained from the weather sensor is intelligently interpreted in order to provide increased functionality and redundancy in a given weather sensor installation. The invention employs a design and method allowing for the user or irrigation system installer to quickly and easily adjust control values or limits for the weather sensor such as the minimum and maximum amount of time the sensor is permitted to leave the irrigation system in the inactive state thus allowing for dynamic, user settable environmental control parameters. Maximum time settings also have the added advantage of being a system failsafe which can prevent landscape loss due to lack of water should there be a sensor failure. Through the use of a microprocessor or other form of control circuitry, weather sensors for irrigation systems, whether wired or wireless, can be programmed to behave in a certain fashion based on inputs received from the sensors themselves. The invention utilizes control circuitry to enable intelligent decisions to be made at, near, or within the irrigation controller and also at the sensors themselves. The invention also include user settable temperature limits that allow the user to actively set the temperature below which the sprinkler system will remain off due to the risk of frozen vegetation or the icing of walkways should the system activate when the ambient temperature is too low. Another feature of the invention utilizes separate rain sensor functions such that one switch activates rapidly due to rain, while another activates after a certain amount of rain falls and accumulates. This feature has the benefit of allowing decisions to be made either at the sensor itself or at the receiver or irrigation controller. It allows for a sensor switch to be eventually ignored should it not be followed by the other switch activating indicating sufficient rainfall and therefore not requiring sprinkler deactivation. In this instance, the sprinkler system would be deactivated upon the sensor element triggering, however the system is programmed to resume in its active state should the second, accumulation type sensor not trigger within a certain amount of time. Another feature of the invention allows for the control of an irrigation system by more than one sensor type, such as a rain sensor and a temperature sensor—while utilizing either a wired feedback system or a wireless system. Both wired and wireless systems allow the system to interpret whether a rain signal or a temperature signal is being applied by using a varied data signal, or varied electrical resistance. This feature has the advantage of allowing the sensor data to be received and interpreted based on the certain condition being sensed as opposed to sending a simple on/off type data signal. This allows for combination of weather conditions to be intelligently interpreted and to provide for better control of the irrigation system.